N.C. State will close out its regular season against Boston College Sunday night at the PNC Arena.
The game will serve as senior night for the Wolfpack’s lone honoree, senior center Jordan Vandenberg. The Pack’s game against the Eagles could also be the last time sophomore forward T.J. Warren will play for State at PNC Arena, unless the sophomore decides to stay in Raleigh for another season.
State (18-12 overall, 8-9 ACC) will be fresh off a five-day rest following Monday’s crucial road win over Pittsburgh (22-8 overall, 10-7 ACC), a win that snapped the Pack’s three-game losing skid.
Boston College (8-22 overall, 4-13 ACC) lost a close encounter, 74-70, at home Tuesday against Florida State (18-11 overall, 9-8 ACC). The Eagles currently sit at the bottom of the ACC, while the Wolfpack is tied with Maryland in eighth place, just one game behind the Seminoles for the seventh slot.
The Pack still has a very realistic shot of locking up a seventh seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament. In the event of a three-way tie for seventh place, N.C. State owns tiebreakers over Florida State and Maryland after beating both teams at the PNC Arena in late January.
Florida State plays against No. 7 Syracuse (26-4 overall, 13-4 ACC) Sunday afternoon in the ‘Noles’ season finale. A Wolfpack win and a Seminoles loss would hand State the seventh seed, regardless of the outcome of Maryland’s game against Virginia.
If the Wolfpack is able to clinch the tournament’s seventh seed, it will likely be in the same half of the bracket as Syracuse and North Carolina, both of whom N.C. State came close to beating in late February.
The Eagles will have to find a way to contain Warren, something few teams have accomplished this season. Warren, the conference’s leading scorer (24.2 points per game), is hot off a sensational 41-point performance against Pittsburgh, his eighth 30-plus point game of the season.
The Durham native also leads the ACC in field goal percentage (.528), and is one of three players in ACC history to lead the conference in scoring and field goal percentage (Tim Duncan and Horace Grant).
N.C. State’s freshman guard Anthony “Cat” Barber seems to be turning things around after hitting a cold streak to begin ACC play. Barber racked up nine points, five assists and five rebounds with no turnovers against Pitt in perhaps his best performance of 2014.
Boston College will hope its star duo, sophomore guard Olivier Hanlan and junior forward Ryan Anderson, can keep pace with Warren and the Wolfpack.
Hanlan, the 2012-2013 ACC Freshman of the Year, is averaging 18.2 points per game this year.
The sophomore had 20 points against then-No. 1 Syracuse on Feb. 19, helping the Eagles pull off the improbable upset.
The Orange’s defense held Anderson, who had nine points against ‘Cuse, well below his season average of 14.3 points per game. But the junior from Lakewood, Calif. compensated by gobbling up 14 rebounds, almost seven more than his season average (7.2).
Wolfpack head coach Mark Gottfried will likely use a combination of junior guards, Desmond Lee and Ralston Turner, to keep Hanlan in check while freshmen forwards Kyle Washington and Lennard Freeman will try to suppress Anderson in the post.
Lee, one of the Pack’s best on-ball defenders, was held scoreless by Pittsburgh’s defense Monday. The junior has been a largely unheralded member of State’s roster this season, but often draws the opposing team’s most difficult offensive matchup.
State’s game against the Eagles is scheduled to tip off at 6 p.m., and will be televised on ESPNU.
